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Miley Cyrus: Teen of all media

She's everywhere: in books, on CDs, on TV and soon back on the silver screen. But can it last? Those close to her have little doubt.

Miley Cyrus arrives at the premiere of her first feature film, Hannah Montana: The Movie, in Los Angeles on April 2, 2009. (MATT SAYLES / AP PHOTO)

By RICHARD OUZOUNIANTHEATRE CRITIC

Sat., April 4, 2009

Blame it on the Dancing Queen.

It was early in 2001 and Billy Ray Cyrus was in Toronto to shoot his TV series, Doc. With him was his 8-year-old daughter, Miley.

One night he took her to the Mirvish production of Mamma Mia! at the Royal Alex, and it wasn't long into the first act, he recalls, that she grabbed his arm. "This is what I want to do, daddy," declared Miley. "I want to be an actress."

It's eight years later and her dreams have all come true ... and then some.

Her first feature film, Hannah Montana: The Movie, opens next Friday, following on the heels of a mega-successful TV series and a record-breaking concert tour, all centred around the character of a young girl who's ordinary by day and a pop star by night.

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Industry sources estimate that this 16-year-old young woman and the brand she represents is worth $1 billion to Disney.

And it's all happened in just three years.

How did she get so far so fast? What's her secret weapon? Is it talent, luck or just the overwhelming cheer she radiates so strongly that her father says her family nickname was "Smiley Miley"? And – perhaps more importantly – how long is this shooting star going to blaze across the show business skies?

Flash back to the summer of 2005. Billy Ray was in Toronto, rehearsing opposite Louise Pitre for Donna Feore's stage production of Annie Get Your Gun.

When I went to interview him, the man who had hit it big with "Achy Breaky Heart" in 1992 – and then went on to know the cruel ups and downs of the showbiz world – talked about how "his little girl Miley" had been the one to bring him out of a deep depression.

"She went up to me where I was sitting alone," he recalled. "She put her head to the ground and said, `Listen Daddy, you can hear the grass grow. Wouldn't you like to hear that again?'"

Billy Ray looked up with moist eyes: "She's a special one. I hope you get to see her one day."

The chance came sooner than either of us ever thought. The Disney Channel had a new series in development about an ordinary teenager who lived a secret life as a pop star. Miley originally auditioned for the role of the best friend, but Disney execs saw something special in her and gave her the leading role.

"She combines the everyday reliability of Hilary Duff and the stage presence of Shania Twain," is the clinical way this 12-year-old performer was described by her bosses just before she went on the air. The amazing thing is that she lived up to it.

The audiences for Hannah Montana (seen in Toronto daily at 5:30 p.m. on the Family Channel) are enormous, but that's not where it ended. Within a year of the show's debut, Miley had released two albums of songs from the TV shows and each had debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.

But it's when she went out on the road with her "Best of Both Worlds Tour" that things really went crazy, with all 69 arena dates across North America selling out in record time.

Canadian choreographer Paul Becker was on that tour, staging her opening act, a then-unknown group called The Jonas Brothers. He saw it all happen up-close, becoming a good friend of hers along the way.

"Miley is an absolute powerhouse on stage," he said from his Vancouver home. "She's a phenomenal performer and is quite extraordinary as a person too. It is a pleasure knowing her."

Becker introduces a theme that all of Miley's co-workers have reiterated. She's no diva, no self-indulgent child, no "headed for disaster" pop-star lollipop.

"Her fame is a result of hard work, drive, and an amazingly mature understanding of her abilities," says Becker.

Miley's popularity kept growing, and it was really only a matter of time until it had to hit the big screen.

Billy Ray wound up on the TV show and in the movie playing his own daughter's father and manager, but he wasn't surprised at her rapid rise to stardom.

"I named her Destiny Hope when she was born, because I felt she was destined to bring hope to the world," he says.

Okay, that's probably parental pride talking, but you get a much more dispassionate, yet equally enthusiastic, point of view from Peter Chelsom, who directed Hannah Montana: The Movie.

His previous leading ladies have included Diane Keaton (Town and Country), Kate Beckinsale (Serendipity) and Jennifer Lopez (Shall We Dance?), so he certainly has some pretty strong points of comparison.

The 52-year-old British director admits that when he was offered the job, he "didn't know who Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus was." But he soon found out and became a fan.

He sounds the same note Becker did about her work ethic, which seems to be the secret. "She's level-headed, unpretentious, works hard. Really wants to please, really wants to do every scene as well as she can."

But then he hits on another reason why girls as young as 4 right through their teens can all be Miley fans. "She's beautiful," he says carefully, "but she's not a beauty. She's accessible. She's a normal girl. She can be silly and goofy and lose her dignity if the scene requires it. To borrow from her theme song, she gives you `the best of both worlds.'"

But let's be clear: The girl isn't a saint. There was the firestorm of protest after revealing Vanity Fair photos of her hit the street, the tabloids haven't exactly been kind about her current boyfriend, "underwear model" (as he's always described) Justin Gaston (who is four years older than her), and she's been subject to the usual trash rumours about eating disorders, pregnancies etc. But some of Miley's recent statements, like a quote to Glamour magazine that Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie were her role models, have led some people to wonder if she's taking the concept of "best of both worlds" a bit far.

Still, so far, Miley has no signs of the self-destructive behaviour that have caused the Britneys and Lindsays before her to crash and burn. Chelsom thinks it's because "when many child stars screw up, the family are new to show business. Billy Ray has been there and back so many times and he knows what it's all about.

"As for her future, I think she's here for the long run. The sky's the limit."

Billy Ray also feels that "she's doing a pretty good job so far with the whole fame thing. As long as she's happy and has peace of mind, I don't care what she does.

"But if she said tomorrow, `Daddy, let's go home,' I'd be the first guy in the truck."

"She's only 16 years old," marvels Chelsom, "and I ask myself if Judy Garland or Shirley Temple were this good at that age."

And Billy Ray says, "You know the best part? This isn't something dreamed up by Hollywood. This is real."

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